Propositions 2015 installation, photograph James Field, courtesy of Adelaide Central School of Art

Propositions 2015 installation, photograph James Field, courtesy of Adelaide Central School of Art

Propositions 2015 installation, photograph James Field, courtesy of Adelaide Central School of Art

From Adelaide With Love

Allen + Julie

1000 years

7.7.17

Christina Peek is a South Australian artist whose practice explores how we manifest our ideas of romance through sincere yet futile gestures. The Adelaide University footbridge has in recent years become a place '...for kissing'.[1]Lovers fasten inscribed padlocks onto the sides of the bridge to signify their devotion to one another and throw the key into the river below.

As this phenomenon grew in popularity the local council began to fear for the structural integrity of the bridge. Concerned it would not be able to support the extra weight of the locks, they began to discourage lovers, threatening to cut them off.

As I took rubbings of the locks, preserving ghosts of the engravings, I wondered if this was enough to keep the couples together if the lock was later removed. Similarly, through the process of rubbing, I recorded names and dates, which had been covered over with permanent marker, hacked at or disfigured at the hands of bolt cutters. I recorded countless anniversaries, marriages and pledges of love. All of these disjointed narratives say, for better or for worse, we were here and I loved you.

[1]Father explains to his daughter the significance of the Adelaide University footbridge and why there are locks fastened to the bridge. Overheard while on the bridge rubbing locks for this project.

Leeward Bride

'Leeward Bride' is a collaborative effort, examining the meeting point of the practices of Edwina Cooper and Christina Peek. The rationale for this exhibition was inspired by the Venetian tradition of marrying the sea. Established in around 1000AD, the Pope would wed the sea each year on Ascension Day by dropping a golden ring from his finger into the ocean.

The two artists have examined this concept from the stand point of their respective practices; Edwina Cooper exploring the relationships and interactions of human and oceanic space, Christina Peek exploring the idea of romance as a fraught cultural narrative. The nature of this collaboration dictates that both have had a hand in making each work.

By working through each piece the pair have attempted to extrapolate on this centuries old ritual reimaging and reconsidering it in contemporary terms. When the significance of both the sea and marriage has shifted in lineage, what unions might today’s society gather from the sea and our potential marriage with it? Where do our expectations and superstitions around both pledges (of marriage) and cohabitation (with the sea) slip?

Since the invention of the kiss...

As romance continues to be a driving cultural narrative in contemporary life, I am constantly interested in the ways we manifest our tentative ideas of romantic love through sincere yet futile actions.

In many ways, I feel we form these initial ideas from the romantic media we consume. Although some of us may never have picked up a Mills and Boon novel or watched Titanic, we understand the formats of these romantic plots.

By removing the figures from iconic cinematic kiss scenes, I aim to create a space in which the audience may consider the sort of romantic relationships these films depict, and offer an opportunity to reimagine these narratives. The makeshift sets endeavor to highlight that real romance is, perhaps, found in the every day; perhaps romance doesn’t require the perfect setting and a pottery wheel.

As delightful as they are potentially damaging, romantic stories often enforce the idea that romantic relationships are an imperative part of human existence. One sometimes has to pinch themselves to remember there are other fulfilling life narratives. These installations aim to highlight this. As each set calls out to be activated the viewer is reminded that romance is not designed for one person, but for two.

Honours 2016

My practice derives from my feelings of hope and futility in a search for romance. I often feel torn between desiring romantic love and feeling pathetic for admitting it. Using materials that evoke romance such as lipstick and perfume, I create sculptures and installations that revel in the grand gestures depicted by popular culture yet maintain sincerity in their hope for romance.

In this way my works become talismans, summoning romance to me, and sites to explore my hopes and fears surrounding romantic love. They ask you to question your opinions of romance, if you too feel pathetic for wanting a partner or excluded from life’s narrative. But the most important question they pose is… are you the one?

FELTspace TREEspace 2016

In a vastly digitalized world love letters are becoming rare objects. A heart emoticon stands in place for I love you. By filling the tree with roughly 400 love letters for strangers to take and read, Christina Peek aims to remind us of a letter we may have received and maybe even persuade us to write one ourselves.

Christina Peek is currently completing a Bachelor of Visual Art (Honours) at the Adelaide Central School of Art.

Bachelor of Visual Art 2015

My work is about love, particularly the romantic kind. I have always been a romantic, adoring tragic love stories such as Wuthering Heights and The Great Gatsby. However, as time passed I came to realise that the romantic narratives I had grown up with represented an unrealistic view of modern day relationships. My interest in first loves stems from the realisation of this and the way I which we might manifest our tentative ideas of romance in sincere yet futile actions. These might include: practice kissing on a pillow, extensively listing attributes of the perfect partner or fabricating a jumper for a non-existent boyfriend. By materialising these actions through the time consuming and intimate processes of embroidery and crochet, I aim to highlight both the silliness and the contrasting sincerity of these gestures.